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'THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF SERIES* 



EVERYDAY 
EXPERIENCES 



BY 



F/%/Sears, M.P. 



AUTHOR OF 
"How to Attract Success," " Concentration— Its Mentology and 
Psychology," "How We Create Ourselves," "The Law of Cause 
and Effect," " Reincarnation— Why, When, Where ? " " Death- 
Then What?" "The Unpardonable Sin," "The Law of Abun- 
dance," "What Creates Environment," " Our Judgment Days," 
"The Resurrection of the Body," "The Secret of Healing," 
" The Risen Self," " What is God? " " How to Give Treatments," 
etc., etc. 



CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. 

NEW YOKE 



L. N. FOWLER & CO. 

LONDON, ENG. 



• 5/5 



Copyright, 1916 
F. W. SEARS, M.P. 
All rights reserved 



NOV 17 1915 



&CI.A446462 



PREFACE 



"Everyday Experiences" are the simple re- 
lation of some of the many problems which 
students and patients have presented to me for 
solution, the remedy I have prescribed, and the 
results obtained. 

Knowing the "Law of Harmony" in its ap- 
plication to all things, and knowing the con- 
structive results which will come to those who 
apply it in the living out of their daily life, 
these actual experiences are given to the world 
for the benefit of those who are ready and wait- 
ing for them. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

How the Rent Was Paid 7 

The World's Injustice 15 

Betraying One's Confidence 24 

Developing a Consciousness 33 

A Blessed Privilege 40 

The Telephone Bell . . . 49 



HOW THE RENT WAS PAID 

She was about 25, well dressed, neat in ap- 
pearance, rather good looking, quite intelligent, 
and a teacher of art. The distressed look upon 
her face when she entered my office showed that 
she was undergoing terrible suffering of some 
kind. She greeted me with the inquiry, "What 
in the world will I do, doctor?" 

I told her the first thing she should do was 
to sit down, just get quiet a little and "let go," 
then tell me all about it. 

I talked with her about unimportant mat- 
ters for a few minutes until I saw that she 
had grown somewhat calm and quiet in the har- 

7 



8 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

monious atmosphere of my office and then asked 
her what her trouble was. 

She said that it was money or rather the 
lack of it. I told her there was plenty of 
money in the world and a great abundance of 
it right here in New York. "Yes," she said, 
"but I can't get hold of it unless I pawn my 
diamond ring. I had to pawn one of them last 
month in order to pay my rent and will have 
to pawn my last one in order to pay my rent 
this month and then what shall I do?" 

"Why pawn your ring now?" I asked. 

"I haven't pawned it yet," she said, "but I 
will have to do so." 

"You may not as yet have gone through the 
physical act of taking your ring to the pawn 
shop and leaving it there," I replied, "but 
you have pawned it already in your conscious-V" 
ness, your thought world, your imagination, 
and unless you at once stop pawning it there 



HOW THE RENT WAS PAID \) 

you will soon take it to the pawn shop. But 
should it be necessary for you to go to the 
pawn shop, why worry about it? Why not 
look upon your rings as cash in the bank, to be 
drawn upon when necessary. We sometimes 
draw our bank balance down to the last dollar 
but that does not worry us for we know we will 
deposit some more right away, and when we do 
KNOW it we always get the money to deposit. 
Why not take this same attitude towards the 
ring you have in pawn?" 

"Again, this is only Friday and the first of 
the month does not come until next Monday," 
I said. "Supposing you did not pay your rent 
on that day your landlord would not put you 
out for you have always been a good tenant and 
paid your rent heretofore. Even though he 
was to serve a dispossess notice on you you have 
five days in which to pay or move, so that you 
have at least a week from to-day, under the 



10 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

most unfavorable conditions, in which to get 
your rent mojiey." 

"Yes," she replied, "that is all very true but 
from whence is the money coming? I haven't 
been doing any work lately and no one is pay- 
ing out any money for my kind of work these 
days and I haven't a cent in sight anywhere and 
no place I can go to get any, except by pawn- 
ing my diamond ring, even if I had two months' 
time instead of only a week." 

"It isn't necessary for you to know from 
whence the money is coming," I replied, "for 
that is the work of God — the great Universal 
Law. Your work is to KNOW that God al- 
ways attends to his part of the business and 
materializes things for us, both in body and 
environment, to accord with the vision or image 
we create and hold in our imagination and the 
harmonious or inharmonious energy we use in 
creating and holding it. God always does his 



HOW THE RENT WAS PAID 11 

part of the work whether we do ours con- 
sciously and intelligently or unconsciously and 
[gnorantly. Just so long as you hold the 
image, thought or idea that you will have 
to pawn your ring, creating and holding 
this image, thought or idea in fear and 
trembling, then the only thing God can do 
for you is to work out that image in material 
form the same as he did for you last month. 
You actually had to pawn your ring then, 
and while you paid your rent, yet you are in 
even worse condition to-day than you were then. 
You can continue to do this same thing again 
this month and keep it up until there is nothing 
left for God to do for you but to continue 
materializing lack and inharmony for you in 
every way. Or by using this same Universal 
Law which has brought you lack, but changing 
your application of it by changing the image, 
thought, idea, vision with which you fill your 



12 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

imagination, you can attract the money to 
you with which to pay your rent, get it in a 
perfectly legitimate and constructive manner 
and not have to pawn your ring either, and by 
continuing to make the new application which 
I will teach you you can be in a much better 
position this time next month instead of a 
worse one as you now are." 

"Oh how can I do it, doctor," she asked. 

"Just FILL your thought world, your imag- 
ination, with the thought, idea, image, vision, 
that you have your rent money NOW, and keep 
it FILLED. Every time the thought of lack 
comes to you displace it at once with the affirm- 
ative statement of 'I have the rent money 
NOW,' " I replied. 

"How can I say 'I have the rent money 
NOW,' doctor," she asked, "when I know it's 
a lie, for I haven't it?" 

"My dear girl," I said, "as long as you know 



HOW THE RENT WAS PAID 13 

you haven't it; as long as you know it's a lie, 
just so long will you continue to be without it, 
for God — the Universal Law — can only mate- 
rialize for you according to your vision and the 
energy back of it, and he cannot furnish you 
with supply for your needs so long as you con- 
tinue to create lack, fear, worry, anxiety, etc., 
in your consciousness, your imagination. When 
you learn to affirm that you have your rent 
money NOW with one-tenth the energy and 
creative power you use in affirming its lack, 
God will materialize it for you." 

"Well, doctor, I will try," she said. 

"That will not do," I answered. 

"I will do the best I can, then," she said. 

"That will not do," again I answered. 

"I will do it," she said. 

"Now I am sure you will succeed," I replied. 

On the following Tuesday she came into my 
office with her face wreathed in smiles and, after 



14 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

greeting me, said, "Oh doctor, it is so wonder- 
ful. I hardly know how it was done, but it 
seemed as though every one in the world 
wanted to pay me money since I was here the 
other day, and I have collected enough money 
not only to pay my rent this month but was 
able to take my ring out of pawn to-day." 



THE WORLD'S INJUSTICE 

She was of medium height and so thin she 
could scarcely make a respectable shadow. Her 
well worn but not shabby dress, and her flimsy 
jacket told a story of lack in environment 
which her peaked, bloodless face and emaciated 
body showed in the latter. 

She had been a room clerk in one of New 
York City's big skyscraper hotels. Worked 
twelve hours, then had six hours off; worked 
six hours and then had twelve hours off. This 
was her ceaseless grind of work day after day 
and night after night, with never a Sunday nor 
holiday off. 

15 



16 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

In the course of her work she was brought 
into contact with both guests of the hotel and 
the hotel employees. She was the meeting point, 
as it were, for the complaints, irritations and 
annoyances of the former and the excuses and 
counter-charges of the latter. Her position 
was not a sinecure by any means as you may 
well imagine. 

She never had been very strong and after 
playing the "buffer" between guests and em- 
ployees for a couple of years, her nervous sys- 
tem was so worn out that she decided to quit her 
position and obtain something not so hard or 
trying on her. 

She succeeded in securing a position as 
demonstrator in a department store for some 
new invention where she worked only half of 
each day and received six dollars a week for her 
services. 

She found that department store customers 



THE WORLD'S INJUSTICE 17 

were not made of any different material than 
were hotel guests and the constant irritations 
which came up in her dealings with the public 
continued to wear on her over-wrought nervous 
system to such an extent that night after night 
she would go to her room without any dinner, 
throw herself on her couch without removing 
any of her clothing, not even her hat, and lie 
there all night long, too exhausted to undress 
and go to bed. 

This condition had been going on for several 
months when she first came to see me. 

I saw at once that her trouble was not with 
her work but in the way she had been doing it — 
the attitude she had taken towards the people, 
things, and conditions with which she contacted. 
She had been resenting and resisting the "in- 
justice of the world," of people and things. 
The great injustice which compelled her to 
labor when she was not able to work, and which 



18 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

only enabled her to eke out the barest kind of 
an existence; the injustice which prevented her 
from having friends, going to entertainments, 
dances, etc., and from enjoying life as did other 
girls. Her whole thought world was filled 
with a bitter and resentful condemnation 
and criticism of the "world's injustice" to 
people in general and to herself in particu- 
lar. 

She never once realized, much less thought, 
that she herself had set all of the causes in 
motion which brought this condition into her 
life and that she was still setting the causes 
in motion which would continue it until she 
learned her lesson and her own power of crea- 
tion. 

When I told her this she would not believe 
it at first, it was such a new idea to her, but 
it set her to thinking and she came back a few 
days later and said she had decided to place 



THE WORLD'S INJUSTICE 19 

herself entirely in my hands and would follow 
my instructions to the very last letter. There 
was no hope for her in any other way that she 
could see and so she had decided that my in- 
structions could not produce any worse con- 
ditions for her than already existed while there 
was a promise of the possibility of something 
better. 

I told her the first thing she was to do was to 
relax and "let go." That she was so tense and 
resistant she repelled everything which was at 
all constructive and harmonious. With each 
breath she inhaled she was to make the follow- 
ing affirmation: "I am breathing in the Peace 
and Harmony of God's Universe NOW." Peace 
and Harmony are manifestations of the Uni- 
versal energy the same as are heat, light, air, 
etc., and the more she could realize this Truth 
and so create the consciousness that she really 
was breathing in the Peace and Harmony, the 



20 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

more would she relate with and attract them to 
her. 

It was necessary for her breathing and affirm- 
ing to be done without strain, effort, or tense- 
ness, as anything which required strain, effort 
or tenseness lost its value the moment this was 
begun. Her entire trouble was not so much in 
the work she had been doing but rather in the 
way she had been doing it, and when she de- 
veloped the habit — the consciousness — of doing 
her work without resentment or resistance — 
that is without strain, effort or tenseness — did 
it because she loved it and it was a "blessed 
privilege" for her to do it — all her tired, ner- 
vous condition would disappear entirely and 
she would become strong, healthy and well. 

This result would not be obtained in a day 
or two, or with only breathing and affirming a 
few times each day but that it would be neces- 
sary for her to "make a business" of it and 



THE WORLD'S INJUSTICE 21 

breathe and affirm many times each day, do this 
just as often as she could possibly take the time 
to do it. She should devote as much time each 
morning and evening to the breathing and af- 
firming as she could without getting the con- 
sciousness or feeling that it was work and that 
she had to do it, for that meant strain, effort 
and tenseness, but she should develop the want 
to love to do it because it was the highest, great- 
est and best thing she knew how to do; that she 
should keep on doing this without paying any 
attention to the results she obtained. 

When we are all the time "looking for re- 
sults" it shows a consciousness of doubt and 
fear, and it is this state of consciousness which 
always delays the materialization of construc- 
tive results because it makes for destructive 
ones. 

During the day she was to take one or two 
deep breaths and make the affirmation as fre- 



22 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

quently as she could think of it, even when she 
was attending to a customer, and that in ac- 
cordance with the persistency and harmony 
with which she followed these instructions would 
her old conditions disappear and more har- 
monious ones gradually take their place. 

How well she followed these instructions is 
evidenced by the fact that in less than a month's 
time she had a good appetite, enjoyed spending 
her evenings in social intercourse, slept well 
every night, and arose each morning full of life 
and ambition. 

She began to see that what she had thought 
was the "world's injustice" was only the effects 
of the causes which she herself had ignorantly 
and unconsciously set in motion through the 
destructive thoughts she had allowed to persist, 
and she learned through applying the lessons 
to her own life which I had taught her that 
there was no injustice in the Universal Law. 



the world's injustice 23 

To-day she is a well woman and has a home of 
her own where she cares for those who, like her- 
self of former years, need the instruction and 
care I gave to her. 



BETRAYING ONE'S CONFIDENCE 

"Once I betrayed the confidence of a very 
dear friend, afterward doing everything in my 
power to regain the friendship, love, and con- 
fidence, but the injury seemed too deep for for- 
giveness. Now what shall I do next?" 

This is an inquiry which I recently received 
and contains a problem that affects many lives. 

This man said that he did "everything in my 
power to regain the friendship, love, and con- 
fidence." I have no doubt but what that is 
true in so far as his knowledge goes as to what 
was in his "power to do," but he made the same 
mistake that the world always makes and that 

24 






BETRAYING ONE'S CONFIDENCE 25 

is he did all of his work in attempting to in- 
fluence and control the other party. 

Let us first understand that it is impossible 
for one person to either betray another's con- 
fidence or injure him in any way. The careless 
and indifferent thinker will at once say that 
this is not true. I do not intend to argue the 
question, for my work is not to either prose- 
lyte or convert, but rather it is to teach, and so 
it does not make any difference to me as to 
whether any one agrees with me or not. 

No one is asked to blindly accept any state- 
ment I may make, but the one who really wants 
to learn will accept "on probation" such state- 
ments as are not as yet truth to him, and then 
test them out for himself in every way he may 
wish until, through his own experience, he is able 
to see their truth and accept them because he 
has proved them for himself and not because I 
have made them. 



26 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

It is true that we often seem to betray 
another's confidence or seem to injure some one 
else, but we do not do this in reality, we only 
seem to do it simply because we have not gone 
deeply enough into the study of life to under- 
stand the Law of Cause and Effect and the 
instruments which are used by God — the great 
Universal Law — in working out the effects of 
causes man sets in motion. 

We can and do betray our own confidence 
and inflict serious injuries upon ourselves again 
and again, but never upon another person. 

When we study life deeply we see the great 
universal Law of Cause and Effect manifesting 
everywhere and we come to understand that this 
Law prevails throughout the Universe and that 
back of every effect, no matter how trivial and 
unimportant it may seem to us, lies the de- 
termining cause which produced it. It is true 
that this cause is too deeply hidden for the 



BETRAYING ONE'S CONFIDENCE 27 

superficial and unsuspecting student to observe 
it but it is always there and can be found by 
the soul which has the real want to discover it. 
People and things are only instruments in the 
hands of God — the great Universal Law — to 
work out in the lives of those with whom they 
contact the effects of the causes they set in 
motion, and when we become convinced of this 
wonderful Truth we cease to blame others for 
any effect we may receive and neither do we 
blame ourselves for any effect which we, as the 
instrument, may give to others. Each life al- 
ways does the best it knows how at the par- 
ticular moment of the commission of any act. 
Many times afterward we see that we have made 
a mistake and are "sorry" for it, but it is 
another mistake to be "sorry." When we see 
we have made a mistake and done what we say 
is the "wrong" thing, it is because we are in 
a different state of consciousness, one that is 



28 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

more harmonious and constructive and where 
we can see the bigger vision and larger ideal 
than the one we were in at the time the "wrong" 
act was committed. In the lesser state of con- 
sciousness we were in at the time the act was 
committed, that which we did was the best we 
knew how to do in that thought current. 

It can therefore be readily seen that had our 
"know how" been better at that particular 
moment — that is had we been in a more har- 
monious and constructive state of conscious- 
ness, or mind, or thought current at that mo- 
ment — we would not have committed the act. 

Our work then is to so develop our human 
mind that we will create within ourselves such 
a harmonious and constructive state of con- 
sciousness as will cause our "know how" to at 
all times accord with our highest ideals. 

Had the man who wrote me the inquiry at the 
beginning of this letter done this he would never 



BETRAYING ONE'S CONFIDENCE 29 

have "betrayed the confidence" of his friend, 
for his "know how" would have accorded with 
his highest ideals and so prevented the betrayal 
when the opportunity arose. He then could 
not have been used as the destructive instru- 
ment in the life of his friend to betray the lat- 
ter's confidence. 

While it is true that we are only instruments 
in the hands of God — the great Universal Law 
— to work out in the lives of those with whom 
we contact the effects of the causes they have 
set in motion, it is also true that we are not 
compelled to be blind, ignorant and destruc- 
tive instruments, directed and propelled by a 
"fate" over which we have no control. It is for 
each life to determine whether it shall be a 
constructive or destructive instrument in the 
hands of the Universal Law. No one else can de- 
cide this question for us. We alone have the 
power of choice. We alone are responsible 



30 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

for the effect of our decision. We can make 
this decision consciously and intelligently or 
unconsciously and ignorantly. We can con- 
tinue to manage our life "with eyes which do not 
see and ears which do not hear" as long as we 
may wish. We can remain both blind and igno- 
rant of the effects of the causes we are mo- 
mentarily setting in motion just as long as we 
desire. God — the great Universal Law — never 
steps in and interferes with our doing anything 
we may desire, no matter whether its effect on 
us is what we call "good" or "bad." He always 
permits us to go on, knowing that "the cure of 
the thing is in the thing itself," and that when 
we have reaped enough of the effects of the 
destructive causes we have set in motion we will 
open our eyes to the larger truth and learn that 
we alone were responsible for the cause. 

I told this man the first thing he should do 
was to begin work upon himself so that his 



BETRAYING ONE'S CONFIDENCE 31 

"know how" would better accord with his 
higher ideals more of the time. He should also 
quit "trying to regain the friendship, love and 
confidence" of the other person and regain his 
own "friendship, love and confidence" and that 
until he had done this he could not expect to 
have it from any one else. He should not even 
be sorry nor regret what he had done, because 
energy expressed as sorrow or regret was energy 
used destructively, and it was the destructive 
use of energy through the thoughts and emo- 
tions we allowed to persist which made us 
destructive instruments in the hands of the 
Universal Law and so made it possible, in his 
case, to seem to betray the confidence of his 
friend. 

It would have been impossible, however, for 
his friend's confidence to have been betrayed 
had not such friend himself created the cause 
through his own inharmonious and destructive 



32 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

use of energy by his thoughts sometime prior 
to the act. That he was in no way responsible 
for his friend's creation and that had he never 
lived his friend's confidence would have been be- 
trayed by some one else; his friend would not 
have escaped the betrayal. He was only respon- 
sible for the fact that he was such a destructive 
instrument that he could be used in this partic- 
ular case. His work was to make his life so har- 
monious and constructive from now on that it 
would be impossible for the Universal Law to 
ever use him again as a destructive instru- 
ment. 

This was the only way in which he could ever 
"forgive" himself and when this was accom- 
plished he would not need to be "forgiven" by 
any one else for he would only attract to him- 
self harmonious expressions from those with 
whom he contacted. 



DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS 

Many times I am asked as to what is meant 
by "developing a consciousness." 

To "develop a consciousness" of anything is 
to have knowledge of it; to understand it; to 
KNOW it, and to KNOW that one KNOWS it ; 
to make union with it ; to recognize our oneness 
with it ; to know that we and the thing desired 
are a part of each other. 

Take for instance some one who has never 
been taught to sew. He has no knowledge of it 
and is therefore very clumsy and awkward in 
the handling of a needle and thread. By per- 
sistent training and application the intelligence 

33 



34 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

in the cells of the fingers are taught what to do 
and when the "consciousness" of how to sew 
has been developed in them the fingers lose their 
clumsiness and become nimble and dexterous 
at the work. 

The same is true in learning to play on the 
piano or other musical instrument; in using a 
typewriter, sewing machine, etc. In fact when 
we attempt to do anything for the first time we 
are always at a disadvantage simply because we 
have not "developed a consciousness" along that 
line and so do not recognize our oneness with it. 

It is true that some persons learn to do a 
thing much more quickly than do others and 
so we have called them "smarter." But this is 
a mistake for no one really possesses any more 
ability than does every other life, some, how- 
ever, have made better use of their power than 
have others. This is true both as regards this 
present life as well as in former incarnations. 



DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS 35 

Should you who read this be one of those 
who have been discouraged in the past because 
you had to work so hard in order to learn how 
to do things, just remember that you have 
stored up in you all the great wonderful power 
of the Universe and can learn to express it 
harmoniously and constructively along any line 
you may desire. 

The first step to take is to recognize that this 
is true; then recognize our union with this uni- 
versal energy. Our God-self has this recogni- 
tion in our inner consciousness and we begin to 
recognize it in the human mind through con- 
stantly affirming our oneness with it. We must 
be just as persistent in doing this as we are 
when we are learning to sew or to play on the 
piano, and no matter how many mistakes we 
may make at first, nor how little we seem to 
accomplish, we want to keep everlastingly at it. 

Many persons have the idea that it is only 



36 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

necessary to repeat an affirmation over a few 
times, or to say it in a half-hearted way and 
then the results they desire should manifest at 
once. When they are sick they seem to think 
that by saying "I am well," or "I am not sick," 
a few times that it ought to cure them and 
because it doesn't then they get the idea that 
there is no power in thought. 

When we are sick it is because the recogni- 
tion of our oneness with health and harmony 
has not been well developed, and we might as 
well expect a poorly developed musician to 
correctly play the masterpieces of Beethoven, 
Bach, Mozart, Wagner, as to expect a poorly 
developed and inharmonious health conscious- 
ness to produce a masterpiece in the way of a 
perfect physical body. 

A poorly developed musician can, with the 
aid of a good teacher and by persistent prac- 
tice, learn to play everything which has ever 



DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS 37 

been written by any of the great masters, and 
so can one who has a poorly developed and in- 
harmonious health consciousness learn to re- 
build his physical body in such perfect health 
and beauty that it will in truth become a fitting 
temple in which the living God in each life may 
dwell. 

But before one can become either the great 
master musician or the perfect creator of a 
beautiful and harmonious physical body he 
must "develop a consciousness" of his oneness 
with whichever his ideal may be, whether of 
music, health, or whatever else he may desire. 

Whenever we really want anything our de- 
sire always is so strong, powerful and over- 
whelming that we are willing to pay the price 
of persistency and application and we go after 
it with all the energy we can command and work 
to make it come to us. We strain, strive and 
use every effort within our power, and when we 



38 EVERYDAY EXPEEIENCES 

do succeed in getting it in this way we find the 
results very unsatisfactory. This is because 
the world has developed a consciousness of 
force and uses force (either physical or mental, 
or both) in obtaining what it wants. 

Force creates inharmony and some day the 
world will learn the great lesson that there isn't 
anything, no matter how valuable it may seem 
to be nor how much we may desire it, for 
which it is worth paying the price of one mo- 
ment of inharmony. 

We should learn then to do our work of 
"developing a consciousness" without worry, 
anxiety, strain, effort, tenseness, friction, for 
all these thoughts and emotions create inhar- 
mony. We should learn not to fight for any- 
thing but to build and "develop a conscious- 
ness" of our oneness with it, creating it in this 
manner in our thought world first, recognizing 
that it is ours NOW (no matter how far away 



DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS 39 

its materialization may seem to be from us) 
and then do on the objective plane whatever we 
think is necessary or advisable to aid us in its 
materialization, but do this quietly, calmly, and 
with a power which KNOWS it will succeed. Do 
it because we love to do it, because it is a 
"blessed privilege" for us to do it. We should 
never do anything with a consciousness that it 
is work or drudgery, for that kind of a con- 
sciousness makes the doing of that particular 
thing a work or drudgery to us. 



A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 

She was a very motherly woman of about 
fifty years of age who had been coming to me 
for treatment on account of nervousness. She 
was getting along nicely, although she had only 
been under my care for about a week, when 
one day she came into the office all flustrated 
and in a highly excited state of mind. 

In explaining the cause of her condition she 
said she was afraid that all the good work we 
had done had gone for naught and that there 
was no hope for her whatever. This was be- 
cause her husband's sister, who lived in one of 
the small up-State towns, had arrived the night 
before for a three weeks' visit and that while she 

40 



A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 41 

loved her sister-in-law very much, yet they 
never got on very well together and this visit 
meant three weeks of untold misery in trying 
to please her visitor. She then unloaded into 
my ears a tale of woe which took her half an 
hour to relate although she talked as fast as 
her tongue could rattle it off. I sat back in my 
chair and listened quietly until she finished her 
list of complaints and I do not think she omit- 
ted a single one of them. 

Although my patient was a dear woman and 
would not intentionally hurt the feelings of any 
one — she would much rather suffer herself than 
to do that — yet I saw plainly that her attitude 
towards this visit of her sister-in-law had 
brought her to a condition where she would 
have an attack of hysteria did it continue. The 
word picture she painted of the previous visits 
and the miserable times she had on those oc- 
casions would have caused almost any one to 



42 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

believe that the sister-in-law was a demon in- 
carnate masquerading as a human being, instead 
of being only an ordinary average woman living 
in the country and who delighted in the free- 
dom and the fascinating sights of a large city. 

When my patient had finished her story of 
condemnation, criticism and complaints, I said: 
"Is that all?" 

"Well, isn't it enough?" she answered. 

I told her that I thought it was and then 
asked whether she wished to have the same kind 
of experiences again this time. 

"Of course not, but how can I help it?" she 
replied. "My sister-in-law is here and what she 
has done before she will do again, and what am 
I to do?" 

"Quit building in your thought world for a 
repetition of these experiences and begin to 
build for what you want instead," I answered, 
"for as long as you continue to take the atti- 



A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 43 

tude you have always heretofore taken towards 
these visits of your sister-in-law, and towards 
what she says and does ; as long as you continue 
to set the causes in motion which will produce 
these inharmonious and destructive effects, just 
so long will you continue to be miserable and 
unhappy every time your visitor comes to see 
you. YOU, however, can change all of these 
conditions and effects by changing your atti- 
tude towards them, provided you have the real 
want to do this." 

"Oh, doctor," she said, "I will do anything 
in the world that is possible for me to do, in 
order to get rid of all the misery which these 
visits have caused me in the past." 

"Then promise me," I said, "that you will 
follow my instructions and I will guarantee 
that by the time the three weeks' visit is up 
you will tell me they have been the happiest 
three weeks of your life." 



44 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

"Oh, could I only believe that would be pos- 
sible, doctor," she said, "I would be so happy." 

"I do not ask you to believe," I replied, "but 
I do ask you to follow my instructions im- 
plicitly, for I know what the results will be even 
though you do not know at the present time." 

I told her the first thing she should do was 
to forget her own little, petty, personal self 
with all of its criticisms, condemnations and 
self-pity ; take her hands off her sister-in-law's 
life and permit her to enjoy herself as she (the 
sister-in-law) wanted and that she herself was 
to turn in and do everything possible to make 
the visit a most pleasant one and to give her 
visitor the "time of her life." She was to 
remember that her sister-in-law lived in a small 
town and the visit to New York once a year 
was a big event in her life; one which she 
planned for and talked about for months before 
she came, living in the pleasure of its anticipa- 



A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 45 

tion and reveling in the joys of it after her 
return home. The theaters, churches, shops, 
big department stores, the crowds of people, the 
illuminations on Broadway were never ending 
objects of interest to one who only saw them 
occasionally. That heretofore she (my patient) 
had only thought of herself, the extra work, 
care and bother of having some one around who 
disturbed her home life, and that the time she 
had spent in entertaining her visitor had been 
the worst kind of drudgery to her because she 
had become satiated with these things and only 
went with her visitor because it was her "duty" 
to do so. She should plan to go with her 
visitor wherever the latter wished to go and 
do the things her visitor wanted to do, not as a 
"duty" she owed to the sister of her husband, 
as had been the case heretofore, but do it as a 
"blessed privilege"; do it because she herself 
enjoyed giving her visitor a good time; do it 



46 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

because she derived the greatest pleasure in 
doing it; do it because she got so much fun, 
pleasure and enjoyment out of seeing her sister- 
in-law have such a good time that she would 
rather do it than not. 

I told her that when we did anything from the 
plane of consciousness where it was our "duty" 
to do it, that it lost its constructive effect, for 
no matter how pleasant we might seem to be on 
the outside there was always the inner resent- 
ment and resistance in our consciousness be- 
cause we felt that we just had to do it on ac- 
count of its being our "duty," but that when 
we changed our inner state of consciousness 
through changing our attitude towards a thing 
and made it our "blessed privilege" instead of 
our "duty" to do it, then the whole thing 
changed and what had been before drudgery 
and difficult to do, became in fact a joy and 
pleasure. 



A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 47 

Objectively she was not necessarily to do 
anything different in entertaining her visitor 
than she had always done before but she was 
to do it with an entirely different consciousness, 
a different thought bach of it, a different pur- 
pose or motive. She was to make it her "blessed 
privilege" to have her sister-in-law here with 
her and was to take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to give her the very best time possible, 
and that this change of attitude on her part 
would work such a transformation in her as to 
seem miraculous in its results. 

She promised faithfully to follow my instruc- 
tions and about a week later she came into the 
office with her face wreathed in smiles and eyes 
shining with joy and gladness. "Oh doctor," 
she said, "I could not wait any longer to see 
you. I just had to come and tell you how 
wonderful it all is. Why last night my sister- 
in-law put her arms around my neck and kissed 



48 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

me (something she had never done before in her 
life) and said she never knew before how dear 
I was. Everything and even more than you 
promised has come true and I never was so 
happy before in all my life, and it is my 'blessed 
privilege' to tell you this. I cannot thank you 
for words are too inadequate to express my 
gratitude for what you have taught me." 



THE TELEPHONE BELL 

Ting-a-ling-ling-ling went the telephone 
bell. I was hard at work on an abstract propo- 
sition where an interruption of my thought 
meant chaos for a while. My telephone had the 
habit of ringing a couple of dozen times a day 
on calls which were not for me, and when I 
called up central to complain about it all the 
satisfaction I received was "Excuse me, please." 

Already my 'phone had rung a number of 
times this morning, only to be met by central's 
"Excuse me, please" when I answered it, and 
I was in a state of exasperation that al- 
most bordered on a desire to murder some one. 

49 



50 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

Several times I had almost gotten to the 
point in which my abstract problem seemed 
to be solved. Twice, just as I was about to 
grasp its solution, did the telephone bell ring 
only for me to hear the old familiar "Excuse 
me, please." 

I had complained to the management about 
these mistakes, the poor service, etc. Men had 
been sent to inspect my 'phone and its connec- 
tions; many parts of the 'phone had been 
changed and finally an entire new instrument 
had been installed, but still the irritation and 
annoyance of calls not for me continued. 

I had scolded central and given her "Hail 
Columbia" many times because of her alleged 
carelessness, but all to no avail, and the calls 
which were not for me still kept coming and 
my annoyance increased rather than diminished. 
Nothing I had ever said or done and nothing 
the Telephone Company seemed able to do ap- 



THE TELEPHONE BELL 51 

peared to have any effect in stopping these 
calls. 

Merrily my bell rang on from twenty to 
twenty-five times a day on calls which were 
mistakes. It seemed as though "Old Nick" 
himself was using the telephone to see how much 
he could irritate and annoy me, and here the 
ting-a-ling-ling-ling of his material representa- 
tive was once more ringing in my ears and the 
solution of my problem again gone glimmering. 

Impatiently I grabbed the telephone receiver 
and placed it to my ear, yelling into the trans- 
mitter a "Hello" that for its acidity, irritabil- 
ity, impatience and petulance could not be sur- 
passed. I resolved to give central in particular 
and the Telephone Company in general such a 
"jacking up" as they would never forget, should 
it be another call which was not for me, and at 
the same time order my 'phone taken out as it 
was proving to be a greater annoyance and 



52 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

trouble than its convenience would balance or 
offset. 

No answer came to my "Hello." I called 
again and again in my impatient and irritated 
state of consciousness. Finally central an- 
swered saying, "What number, please?" It was 
a new voice on my wire ; a voice that was filled 
with friendly feeling and good fellowship; one 
that unconsciously made union with the uni- 
versal harmony and so felt only the "good" in 
everything, that all my irritation, annoyance 
and sarcasm at once disappeared and I replied 
in a voice which was new to me so filled with 
harmony were its tones, "You called me?" 
"Excuse me, please," said central, and I hung 
up my receiver and sat back in my chair with- 
out another word. 

My 'phone did not ring any more that day, 
neither did I again take up the solution 
of the abstract problem on which I had been 



THE TELEPHONE BELL 53 

working, for another one filled my thought 
world and this is the problem and its solu- 
tion. 

"Why did my 'phone ring so many times each 
day on calls which were not for me?" 

Back of every effect lies the cause which 
produces it. Back of every material thing is 
the energy which creates it. Nothing hap- 
pens — nothing occurs by chance, accident or 
luck, no matter how much it may seem to do 
so. 

Looking at the matter concretely of the 
numerous 'phone calls I had which were not 
for me, the Telephone Company was to blame, 
but they had made every effort on their part 
to correct the trouble and it seemed to get 
worse instead of better. 

I asked myself the question "Where did the 
blame rightly belong? To the Telephone Com- 
pany or to myself?" 



54 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

I saw that the real solution to this question 
was in the abstract for before anything can 
be reduced to the concrete or material side of 
life it must be created first in the abstract. 

How then could I be to blame ? Through the 
use I made of energy in the abstract by the 
kind of thoughts and emotions I allowed to 
persist in my imagination and field of con- 
sciousness. 

I had been irritable, impatient, intolerant, 
sarcastic, critical, condemnatory, not only with 
the Telephone Company but more or less with 
other people and things. This was using energy 
inharmoniously in the abstract and there could 
be only one result which was its materialization 
as inharmony in the concrete, and I had been 
getting that materialization in the annoyance 
and irritation which so many mistakes in the 
telephone calls had given me. I also saw that 
was only one of the ways in which I had been 



THE TELEPHONE BELL 55 

materializing concretely the energy I had been 
using inharmoniously in the abstract. 

I determined to begin work on myself at once 
to change the state of consciousness in me which 
had permitted this condition to arise and 
demonstrate the truth or falsity of my solution 
of the problem. 

It is quite easy to make "good" resolutions, 
but it is a much more difficult thing to live them 
out in one's daily life. My first attempts were 
abject failures, but I refused to be discouraged 
and kept working with myself each day. No 
matter how many times I failed I renewed my 
"good" resolutions each time and became even 
more determined to carry them out. My idea 
was not to repress my annoyance, impatience, 
irritation, and inharmony, but to displace them 
with Jcindness and harmony. Some of my first 
attempts were most ludicrous and bordered on 
the tragic but I kept at it. 



56 EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES 

The progress seemed so slow at first that 
frequently I would be almost overwhelmed with 
the thought of the impossibility of my ever 
accomplishing the desired end but something 
inside of me would again get hold of and urge 
me on. In a couple of months' time I could be- 
gin to see some improvement, as there would 
be some days when I would not have more than 
half as many calls as usual. In six months' time 
I had done the work so well that days went by 
when I did not have one single call which was 
not for me. 

AH this occurred a number of years ago and 
since then the calls which are not for me have 
disappeared entirely and it is a rare instance 
now for such a thing to occur. 

This experience and its solution taught me 
the lesson of "Who is to blame," and since then 
when anything has come into my life which was 
at all inclined to be inharmonious in its effects, 



THE TELEPHONE BELL 57 

instead of blaming some one else for it I have 
at once gotten busy with myself and created 
more harmony in my own consciousness, and 
through such creation have been able to dis- 
place all inharmonious effects and transmute 
them into "good" effects. 



"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" SERIES, 

"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" are a series of 
books by F. W. Sears, M. P., (Master of Psychology) and 
are so-called because that little negative word "if" is not 
used anywhere in their context. This psychological fact 
makes Dr. Sears' -writings of peculiar interest in addition 
to the wonderful philosophy he teaches. 

Dr. Sears is one of the world's greatest students of 
psychology. His wonderful perception and understanding 
of the subtle laws of THOUGHT POWER makes him 
-without comparison as a Lecturer, Teacher, and Writer in 
the world of metaphysics. He has the happy faculty of 
making the most abstract Truths so interesting and easy to 
understand that they seem simple. His books are so vital 
that one feels the new life impulse which they bring, and 
his new application of these old truths is so interesting, log- 
ical and so full of inspiration that they appeal to all classes. 

"The Books Without an If" are used as Text Books 
by many teachers and are invaluable to the earnest seeker 
after Truth who wants UNDERSTANDING. They con- 
stitute a course of study in which is taught the practical ap- 
plication to the affairs of every day life of old and tried fun- 
damental laws and principles. These laws and principles 
are as old as man but in their larger application, as taught 
by Dr. Sears, they are a "new thought" and a knowledge 
of them is invaluable to the student of constructive living. 
Four books have so far been published in this series and 
bear the following titles: 

New Thought Lectures, Vol. I. $1.25 
New Thought Lectures, Vol. II. 1.25 
How To Give Treatments, 1.25 

How To Attract Success, l.SO 

Manuscript is now in course of preparation for addi- 
tional volumes to the "New Thought Lectures" which will 
be added to the series later on. 

A. H. A., Camden, N. J. writes : "They are certainly 
the most wonderful books I ever read. I have New 
Thought books of all kinds but not one holds the message 
for me that these books have." 



"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" SERIES. 
•'New Thought Lectures" 

Price $1.25 postpaid 

CONTENTS: Vol. I. 

"How We Create Ourselves," teaches in. a plain, 
scientific way how each life is constantly creating, destroy- 
ing, re-creating and re-destroying its body and environment 
with every breath it breathes; and shows how one may 
learn to do this consciously and intelligently and so make 
both body and environment to accord with his desires. 

"The Law of Cause and Effect," teaches how 
each life sets the causes in motion which produces every 
effect it receives. That people and things are instruments 
in the hands of God — the great Universal Law — to work 
out in our lives the effects of causes we have set in motion. 
That each life can determine whether it will be a construc- 
tive or destructive instrument in the lives of others with 
•which it contacts. Which do you want to be ? 

'•The Resurrectfon of the Body," teaches how 
this may be brought about while we are still living, and in 
a sane, natural manner, as the result of natural laws 
which seem miraculous because the -world has not under- 
stood them. The bodies of many persons are so decayed 
and dead that they need to be transmuted into a "temple 
fit for the living God within them." 

"The Risen Self" teaches how the body may be 
refined and made more harmonious so that the God-self 
may manifest freely through it, and thus give expression 
to the new self or "The Risen Self." 

'•The Secret of Healing" teaches the law of health 
and how to relate "with it. Health is the natural result of 
relating normally with the laws which produce it, "while 
disease is the natural effect of violating these laws. 

'•The Unpardonable Sin" is a most -wonderful, yet 
simple interpretation of this question, and makes it so plain, 
although so new and entirely different from -what we 
thought, that we -wonder "why we have never understood it 
before. This lesson teaches how and -when we become 
free from the so-called "unpardonable sin." 

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO* 
NEW YORK 



"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" SERIES. 
"New Thought Lectures 9 ' 

Price SI. 25 postpaid 

CONTENTS: Vol. II. 

*'Our Judgment Days" teaches that each day is a 
"day of judgment" and that our daily experiences are the 
sentences we pass upon ourselves. It also teaches how to 
change these judgments and obtain what we want. 

"The L<aw of Abundance" teaches that this is the 
natural law of the Universal Life. When we have lack in 
our lives it is because we have separated ourselves in our 
thought world from the abundance of supply, and not 
because there is any lack in the universal supply. This 
lesson shows how to make union with the abundance and 
materialize it for our daily needs. 

"What Creates Environment" is a complete an- 
swer to the fallacies of Socialism and teaches a much deeper 
cause. Man creates his own environment and then in turn 
receives the reflex action of its effects. This lesson teaches 
how to create the kind of environment one desires. 

"Death! Then What?" This should be read by 
all who mourn a loved one that has passed on. "Death is 
but the open door to a larger life,'* and when we understand 
our relationship to it and to those who have gone before, it 
is much easier to bear. No life should be without the in- 
struction this lesson gives. 

"Reincarnation! Why, When, Where?" Rein- 
carnation is a Truth which only each life can "prove" for 
itself. To those who want to learn how to develop an un- 
derstanding by which one may "prove" this Truth for him- 
self, this lesson can be made a step along the pathway and 
become exceedingly valuable. Reincarnation, together w iih 
the Law of Cause and Effect, solves problems which have 
been otherwise unsolvable. 

"What is God?" A scientific, philosophical, and 
religious lesson on this most wonderful subject; one that 
gives the largest interpretation the imagination can conceive 
through the intelligent use of our higher faculties. 

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. 

NEW YORK 



"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" SERIES. 
"How To Give Treatments" 

explains fully in plain, understandable, common-sense lan- 
guage the cause and cure of disease. 

The author, Dr. P. W. Sears, Specialist in Nervous 
Diseases, -was born and brought up in the drug business 
and studied medicine in his younger days. Although en- 
gaging in a commercial career he never lost interest in the 
investigation of the cause and cure of disease but con- 
tinued his study along these lines. He finally decided that 
the physical origin of all disease was centered in the two 
nervous systems; that the energy created by one's thoughts 
acted and reacted upon these two systems creating harmony 
or inharmony bet-ween them according to the character of the 
thoughts which persisted. This theory he has fully demon- 
strated in his practice as a teacher and no patient who has 
persistently followed his instructions has failed to be healed. 

All cures, whether with or without the use of drugs, 
are simply the result of natural laws which are not 
generally understood but which all may learn; while 
all disease is the result of the violation of these same na- 
tural laws. 

This book teaches how the inharmony is produced 
■which results in disease and how to correct it and produce 
harmony or health. How healing may be accomplished 
by drugs, electricity, osteopathy, chiropractic, Faith, Mental 
Science, Divine Science, Christian Science, New Thought, 
etc. Why some persons respond more readily to some of 
these methods than to others. Why some persons fail to be 
healed by any method. How the so-called "miracles" are 
accomplished in healing. How to treat one's self or others. 
How to give absent treatments. 

The author gives some of his personal experiences and 
the methods he has successfully used in teaching and 
healing. 

J. A. G., DesMoines, la. writes: "Send me five more 
copies of 'How To Give Treatments.' This book is so 
good I want to send some to my friends." 

Price $1.25 postpaid. 

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. 

NEW YORK 



"THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF" SERIES. 
"How To Attract Success" 

By F. W. Sears, M. P. 

deals -with, the subject of obtaining and retaining SUC- 
CESS from a standpoint never before taught. 

That "we can retain a thing only under the same 
LAW by which we obtain it" is a Universal Law which 
the world is just beginning to learn. When we OBTAIN 
SUCCESS by forcing instead of attracting it to us we 
must be prepared to exert our force at all times and against 
all-comers to a greater extent or we cannot retain what 
we have obtained. The inability of the masses to do this 
is why there are so many failures when SUCCESS seems 
to have been won. 

Prior to taking up his present -work Dr. Sears was en- 
gaged in the business world where he made and lost three 
fortunes. In seeking the REAL CAUSE for his losses he 
learned the great Truth that "we can retain a thing only 
under the same Law by 'which we obtain it." 

This book teaches how to ATTRACT SUCCESS in 
every line of work and in every way, so that it may be 
retained after it has been obtained. It is at once the 
most PRACTICAL yet the most INSPIRING work ever 
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an inspired man who has turned failure into success 
under the most difficult and trying conditions, and who is 
daily teaching others to do the same. 

W. B. H. of New York says: "For the past twenty 
years I have studied Metaphysics, Christian Science, New- 
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under the best teachers of the world, but Dr. Sears' book 
on "How to Attract Success" is a marvel to me for it is the 
most complete yet plain and simple work I have ever 
found. I consider him one of the greatest masters of all the 
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Guarantee: — All books by F. W. Sears, M. P., are sold by 
us under the guarantee of "y° urmone y back if not satisfied." 

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO., New York. 



Concentration Spells Success 

when rightly used, but when -wrongly used it is sure 
to bring failure. Most persons concentrate on that which 
annoys, irritates and makes for failure. When we are sick 
it is hard to concentrate on the thought of being -well. 
When we are despondent it is difficult to concentrate on the 
idea of ever being happy again. When we have lost money 
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to concentrate on our having an abundance again. 

We all lock the doors and windows of our home to 
keep out intruders, but do you lock the doors and windows 
of your thought world and so keep out the thoughts which 
take away one's slrength, hope, faith, courage, ambition, 
power and ability ? Do you belong to the class of people 
who have used their concentration rightly or wrongly? 
Do you own your own mind? Has your concentration 
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Health or sickness; Brilliancy of mind or loss of memory? 
Can you concentrate for five minutes on any one thing 
you want* shutting out entirely every random, stray, 
tramp thought ? Try it. 

"CONCENTRATION-Its Mentology and Psychology" 

By F. W. SEARS, M. P. (Mailer of Psychology) 
teaches how to do this. 

The person "who can concentrate "on purpose" for what 
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Power in the World, a Power which, when he 

learns to use it rightly, gives him the mastery of him- 
self and his environment. 

All persons possess this POWER hut few have ever 
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can learn to use it rightly by persistently applying the 
lessons taught in this book. No matter how many books 
on Concentration you may have read nor how many les- 
sons you may have taken, THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT. 
You need to learn the lessons it teaches. Price 50 
cents postpaid. Worth a thousand dollars. 

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. 
NEW YORK 



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